You only have a couple weeks left to register to compete in one of the N.C. State Fair's cooking contests. The deadline is Oct. 5.

The dozen contests include the N.C. Peanut Tailgating Recipe Contest and the House-Autry Mills "Southern Fried Classic" Recipe Contest to others promoting eggs, pork, pecans and beef.

Rules for each contest are online at www.ncstatefair.org/2012/Competitions/SpecialCooking.htm. Contestants's recipes must be postmarked by Oct. 5 or dropped off at the fairgrounds' entry office. Any questions: call 919-821-7400, ext. 4521.
 

The NC State Creative Writing Program is seeking entries its annual statewide Poetry Contest.

Attila Bartis’s Tranquility, translated from the Hungarian by Imre Goldstein and published by Archipelago Books, and Takashi Hiraide’s For the Fighting Spirit of the Walnut, translated from the Japanese by Sawako Nakayasu and published by New Directions, are the recipients of the 2009 Best Translated Book Awards for fiction and poetry respectively.

The Bellday Poetry Prize has issued a call for entries. The deadline for entries is March 16. Bellday Books will publish the winning book and award $2,000 and 25 copies of the book to the winning author.

By HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Oh, the horror: Neil Gaiman has received the top prize for children's literature: The John Newbery Medal. Gaiman's spooky “The Graveyard Book,” about a boy raised by vampire, a werewolve and a witch, was named the winner Monday of the 88th annual Newbery.

The Randolph Caldecott Medal, given to the illustrator of the best picture book, went to Beth Krommes for “The House in the Night,” written by Susan Marie Swanson.

The Coretta Scott King Award for best author was given to Kadir Nelson, for “We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball." The illustrator award went to Floyd Cooper for “The Blacker the Berry.” The King prizes were founded 40 years ago to honor the works of African Americans.

The National Book Critics Circle named 30 finalists for its prestigious book awards that will be presented in New York City on March 12.

February 1 is the deadline for entries for the Doris Betts Fiction Prize.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Jhumpa Lahiri, Tobias Wolff and Joe Meno are the finalists for the fifth annual Story Prize for outstanding short fiction.

Lahiri was cited for ''Unaccustomed Earth,'' her first collection of short stories since the Pulitzer Prize-winning ''Interpreter of Maladies''; Wolff, best known for the memoir ''This Boy's Life,'' was nominated for ''Our Story Begins''; and Meno, whose books include ''The Boy Detective Fails,'' was a finalist for ''Demons in the Spring.''

The winner, who receives $20,000, will be announced March 4. Previous honorees include Mary Gordon and Edwidge Danticat.

The National Book Foundation has  announced that it will start awarding "a number of prizes of up to $2,500
each to individuals and institutions – or partnerships between
the two – that have developed innovative means of creating
and sustaining a lifelong love of reading." Click here to learn more and to download an application.